Horns

Wealthy Ignatius Parish is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look--a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed his wife Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge. It's time the devil had his due. "When it comes to revenge the devil is in the detail"--Container.

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I admit- I didn't know about this book until I saw a trailer for the movie. And although it's listed as horror, and I'm not a huge horror fan, the premise intrigued me.

Personally, I'd call this more fiction than horror. Yes, there is violence and horrific things and supernatural elements (and magical realism), but at its heart this is a human story. It's about justice and perspective and...well, ok, a bit about revenge, too. It's one of those narratives where the MC just can't win, and that makes you pull even harder for him.

Also, this book has some things to say about the nature of evil, and good, and faith. Staunch Christians may find it offensive in that it challenges the 'easy' answers about good and evil, but I loved the juxtapositions. Statements aside, this is also a really compelling narrative, a murder mystery, a psychopath, and the story of one guy trying to catch a break.

It's hard to say much about this without ruining the beautiful unfolding of mysteries that is part of the book's charm. I can say that the audiobook was well done- good narrator, good quality, great editing, and no distracting musical interludes. The plot has an excellent, fast pace, and nearly every single named character is developed. I was on the edge of my seat until the bitter end, never feeling that comfortable assurance that the everyone will get what they deserve (and I LOVE that). After reading this, I can't wait to read Joe Hill's other two books!

In this novel, Hill definitely creates a world and a situation that prove to be pretty uncomfortable for the reader. This setting paves the way for the reader to consider the events of the novel and debate right from wrong, and good from evil. While some of the situations are pretty intense, the descriptive qualities of the writing make it worth the read.

Very repetitive themes. Seriously, very repetitive. I think the word "horns" is comes up about every 10 words. Possibly in every sentence. Almost all of the characters in the book act in an unrealistic manner, so it was very hard to immerse oneself in the story , as the second anyone said or did anything one would think what the character is doing or saying is completely irrational. Also, 99% of this book would have been avoided if Ig had simply moved to a different state. Not to mention, Miriam could have simply waited like 1 day until Ig left for London to do what she did, and or she could have acted like a adult from the get-go and everything that happened would have been avoided, including the fact that this story took a whole 12 discs to tell.